For Capt. Martin Noorsalu, deploying to Afghanistan with the Maryland National Guard last year was an unusual opportunity. Noorsalu is one of only a dozen helicopter pilots in the Estonian Air Force. The sole air defense service of the former Soviet republic numbers some 400 personnel. They fly four helicopters. But from September to December, Noorsalu and fellow Estonian Air Force Capt. Rene Kallis flew medical evacuation missions in Afghanistan with Maryland National Guard members in the 1st General Support Aviation Battalion of the 169th Aviation Regiment.

Yesterday in one sentence: Costa Rica did CONCACAF proud and Honduras tried, but France put on a performance against a fraudulent Swiss side that not many European sides have been capable of in Brazil. What's on tap: Argentina vs. Iran, 12 p.m., ESPN; Germany vs. Ghana, 3 p.m., ESPN; Nigeria vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 6 p.m.. What you'll see: The day's opener will feature Lionel Messi and the uber-talented Argentine side try to break down a group of Iranians that will park the bus in front of goal under Portuguese manager Carlos Queiroz.

Growing up, when Alex Pownall watched his father, he saw a man who loved his job. John Pownall has served 20 years in the military, the last 12 as a recruiter for the Maryland National Guard. He was sent to defend Andrews Air Force Base after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and advised the Afghan National Army in 2011 and 2012. "He looked forward to drill, and he came home happy," Alex Pownall said. So when Alex turned 17 last year, he needed no convincing. He joined the Maryland National Guard in October and is waiting to finish high school so he can go to boot camp.

The self-congratulations of statesmen for having made war in Europe impossible were premature. Part of Europe is at war. The internationalization of the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina was completed Monday when federal Yugoslavia proclaimed itself smaller, consisting only of former Serbia and Montenegro, without territorial claims on neighbors. Therefore the federal troops outside this new entity must be on foreign soil. Those shooting and shot at must be at war.The new, two-republic Yugoslavia has half the area and population of the old. Most of its people are Serbs.

Serbs ended the occupation of strategic MOUNT IGMAN, Bosnia-Herzegovina, that threatened to scuttle Bosnian peace talks and risked Western intervention. Only a handful of soldiers remained on the mountain above Sarajevo past the 4 p.m. deadline to withdraw, and United Nations officials said they no longer represented a threat.Aboard the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, the NATO commander who is helping plan possible allied air strikes against Bosnian Serbs said he and the chief of the U.N. force in the former Yugoslavia have agreed on potential targets.

Paris -- Humanitarian intervention in Bosnia is futile if nothing is done to prevent the atrocities. Serbian policy is to conquer and effectively annex a large part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and purge the conquered areas of their non-Serb population. It is a policy inseparable from atrocities against the civilian population.Thus while the United Nations forces at Sarajevo airport supply food and medicines to the people of that city, and have even taken relief supplies into besieged Muslim districts in Sarajevo's suburbs, they act under Serbian guns and thanks to brief truces their commanders negotiate with the combatants.

UNITED NATIONS -- The Bosnian Serbs' rejection of the international peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina was greeted with surprise and dismay by diplomats here, and the announcement brought fresh pledges that the Security Council will move quickly to tighten economic sanctions against the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav government."

NEW YORK -- In an effort to preserve and nurture a generation of athletes, the Olympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina has reached agreements with several national sports federations transport more than 200 of its most talented young people out of danger to top training centers throughout the world.Among the sports federations that have agreed to train thathletes is the U.S. Olympic Committee. Harvey Schiller, the executive director of the USOC, has offered to play host to Bosnian lugers in Lake Placid, N.Y., perhaps within the next several months.

The local division of Northrop Grumman Corp. has won two large contracts to build air traffic control systems in the Middle East and a third for a system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the company reported.Saudi Arabia's defense ministry picked the Electronic Sensors & Systems Division, based in Linthicum, for a $60.7 million contract to create an air traffic control system at the country's Prince Sultan Air Base complex.The work will involve designing and constructing facilities for flight control, navigation and meteorological and communications systems.

For Capt. Martin Noorsalu, deploying to Afghanistan with the Maryland National Guard last year was an unusual opportunity. Noorsalu is one of only a dozen helicopter pilots in the Estonian Air Force. The sole air defense service of the former Soviet republic numbers some 400 personnel. They fly four helicopters. But from September to December, Noorsalu and fellow Estonian Air Force Capt. Rene Kallis flew medical evacuation missions in Afghanistan with Maryland National Guard members in the 1st General Support Aviation Battalion of the 169th Aviation Regiment.

Nature center moving to Owings Mills The Irvine Nature Center will close its building on the grounds of St. Timothy's School in Stevenson as of tomorrow to prepare to move to a new facility in Owings Mills. The new building, at 11201 Garrison Forest Road, is scheduled to open to the public Aug. 23. A grand opening gala for adults only will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at the new center, featuring the Jody Westerlund Band, food and a look at the facility. Tickets are $100 and reservations are required.

MCLEAN, Va. - President Bush's reaffirmation two weeks ago in Kosovo that American forces will remain in the Balkans is bad news for those long bent on obstructing the Dayton peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bush administration now needs to impart a fresh sense of determination to achieve the goal of a just peace among Bosnia's Muslims, Croats and Serbs, including those who wish only to be known as Bosnians. Policies, however, need success stories. The conflicted Bosnian city of Brcko is one such story.

MOSTAR, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The Old Bridge was narrow and less than 100 feet long; it could be crossed on foot in seconds. But when carefully plotted Croatian artillery shells sent it crashing into the Neretva River four years ago, the shock waves traveled far and wide.Stari Mos (Old Bridge in Serbo-Croatian) had stood for more than 400 years and was the most famous landmark in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Erected on the Neretva River on the outermost reaches of the Ottoman Empire, it marked the place where the Islamic East met and mingled with the Christian West.

PAZARIC, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Old soldiers never die -- they simply become "consultants."Hunkered down in a bunker 25 miles west of Sarajevo, Col. Clark Welch -- late of the U.S. Army's Special Forces -- is plotting the downfall of the Bosnian Serb army. "Eight hundred hours tomorrow, we 'move to contact,' " cackles the ebullient Vietnam veteran to a group of staff officers gathered around a pin-riddled wall map. "They'd better be ready, 'cuz we're gonna kick the crap out of them."Fighting talk.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Moving to end a volatile power struggle that has increasingly sucked in NATO peacekeepers, the Western-backed Bosnian Serb president agreed yesterday with her hard-line rivals to new elections and shared access to state television.The agreement, brokered in Belgrade by Slobodan Milosevic, the president of neighboring Yugoslavia, was seen by international mediators as a breakthrough.The deal is aimed at resolving a stubborn impasse that pitted Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic against allies of indicted war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

WASHINGTON -- The United States accused Serbia yesterday of acting as an "aggressor" in trying to seize control of large parts of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina and considered new steps to isolate the Bel- grade government as an international pariah.Among options is the reduction, downgrading or removal altogether of U.S. diplomatic representation in Belgrade, officials said.The new pressure reflects the growing importance of the Yugoslav conflict in the eyes of U.S. policy-makers. Content for months to take a back seat to the European Community as the Yugoslav federation fell apart, officials now see a stronger U.S. role as important in showing a continuing commitment to European security.

The local division of Northrop Grumman Corp. has won two large contracts to build air traffic control systems in the Middle East and a third for a system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the company reported.Saudi Arabia's defense ministry picked the Electronic Sensors & Systems Division, based in Linthicum, for a $60.7 million contract to create an air traffic control system at the country's Prince Sultan Air Base complex.The work will involve designing and constructing facilities for flight control, navigation and meteorological and communications systems.

BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright completed a two-day visit yesterday to the Balkans that brought few immediate results but appeared to inject a new sense of urgency into the uphill process of rebuilding the war-ravaged region.After meeting in Sarajevo with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and walking through some of the most damaged parts of the capital, Albright traveled to this northern Bosnian town to celebrate a modest but important achievement of her visit -- the reopening of a one-lane bridge across the Sava River connecting northern Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia and the rest of Europe.